Hamas Redeploys Forces Along Border with Israel

Hamas has redeployed its security forces along the border with Israel to prevent rocket fire.

Contact Editor

Elad Benari, 05/02/14 05:15

Al Qassam, Hamas's military wing

Flash 90

The Hamas government in Gaza has redeployed security forces along its borders with Israel to prevent rocket fire, the Ma’an news agency reported Tuesday.

Islam Shahwan, an official from the Gaza Interior Ministry, said that the ministry's role is to "secure and fortify the home front and the agreements approved by resistance factions to realize our people's interests, security and stability."

The "resistance in Gaza will not allow the occupation to violate the ceasefire which had been reached after the occupation was defeated in the 2012 battle," he told Ma’an.

On Sunday it was reported that Hamas has ordered its forces preventing against rocket fire into Israel to retreat.

Palestinian Arab insiders said that Hamas's military wing ordered the preventative forces to withdraw in retaliation to the Israeli Air Force's air strike on the Islamist-controlled territory last Thursday. That strike was Israel's retaliation measure after rockets from Gaza landed near Netivot.

Rocket attacks have been on the increase in recent weeks, leading some Israeli officials to conclude that the ceasefire with Hamas, brokered by Egypt and the United States following the counterterrorism Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, is dissolving.

Meanwhile, Arab media reported on Tuesday that Hamas did not fire rockets at Israel this week because of infighting between the group’s armed wing and its political bureau.